Armchair BEA Day 3

Share a positive "real life" experience with books.

Let me start by saying that I have yet to have a negative book related experience. All the book signings that I have been to were very well organized, with very friendly staff and very nice readers. I mean, there is the occasionally annoying person that would hog the attention of an author, but nothing too bad. But I will tell you about the first book signing that I ever went to.

Until I started living in the United States ( I was raised in Mexico), I had no idea that there were events like these. I actually never really thought much about the person who wrote the book I  was reading, or even felt any desire to meet them. I would fantasize that I was the heroine in the book, but not about the person behind said heroine.

Then, one day, my best friend ( who was just a casual friendship then) started telling me about this really great book that she was currently reading. It was set in a city where it was always raining and was about this girl who had a biology partner that seemed to hate her without apparent reason. The book didn't sound that  interesting ( I could tell that by the end of the book this two people would be romantically involved), but my friend was really excited about it so I decided to give this book a try. 'Lo and behold, said book was called Twilight by Stephenie Meyer...and despite what some people may say about this story, it has become one of my all time favorites.

The Twilight series was the cataclysm for a lot of firsts for me. Twilight introduced me to the YA section of the bookstore ( before I would only read classic literature), it was my first midnight movie release, I learned to drive so I could attend the midnight movie release, it made me and my casual friend best friends forever, and it was my first book signing.

Now, as far as first book signings go, this one was intense. Stephenie Meyer was already very famous and the total people attendance was over a thousand and I had to stand in line for about nine hours. But it was very fun and very worth it. I got to meet new people who were just as in love with this story as I was, one of my questions was answered by Stephenie Meyer and, this event,  made realize that it was okay to go totally crazy for a book, a story, a fictional character. It was OK to think that authors are rock stars.

Since then, I have attended numerous book signings, I have even attended book signings with a panel full of authors who I hadn't yet read, and I have had tons of fun. I like to listen to people talking about the books they love and have discovered new and great authors this way. I love the fluttery feeling in my stomach that I get when I get to meet my favorites and cherish the books that they sign for me.

Books have always put a smile on my face and I know that, for me, it will always be this way.

What about you? What was the first book signing that you went to?